1954 Italian Grand Prix

 1954 Italian Grand Prix

Racing data
8th of 9 races of the 1954 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	XXV Gran Premio d'Italia
Date:	5th September 1954
Place:	Monza , Italy
Course:	Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Length:	504 km in 80 laps of 6.3 km
Weather:	Sunny, dry
Pole position
Driver:	Juan Manuel Fangio	Mercedes
Time:	1: 59.0 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	José Froilán González	Ferrari
Time:	2: 00.8 min
Podium
First:	Juan Manuel Fangio	Mercedes
Second:	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari
Third:	Umberto Maglioli José Froilán González	Ferrari

The 1954 Italian Grand Prix took place on September 5th at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza near Monza and was the eighth race of the 1954 World Cup .

Reports

background

Juan Manuel Fangio had already secured the 1954 world championship title in the drivers' championship. Since Fangio had won all races of the 1954 season, with the exception of Silverstone and the Indianapolis 500 race, the competition on the high-speed track in Monza now tried to beat the superior Mercedes .

The long-awaited debut of the new Lancia team was postponed again as the car was still unfinished. The hope of the Italian motorsport fans rested on the Italian teams Ferrari and Maserati , who were said to have a chance of winning in this race. While Mercedes relied on the driver combination of Fangio, Karl Kling and Hans Herrmann , as in the previous races , Ferrari started with five cars, Alberto Ascari returned to his team for this race, with whom he became world champions in 1952 and 1953. After winning the Swiss Grand Prix, Fangio was the driver with the most victories in Formula 1, he had one more than the previous record holder Ascari. Ascari's comeback promised an exciting battle between the two for this record. Fangio was able to expand the record of most victories in the following years and held it from then until 1968, when Jim Clark outbid him by one win.

Maserati fielded six cars in this race and also brought Luigi Villoresi and the experienced Ferrari driver Louis Rosier into the team, as well as Luigi Musso , who took over the car of his teammate Sergio Mantovani in the 1953 Italian Grand Prix . With this, Musso completed his first full race weekend, as did Giovanni de Riu , who started in a private Maserati. For de Riu this remained the only Formula 1 Grand Prix of his career. While Rosier drove for Maserati, Robert Manzon started for his team Ecurie Rosier in a private Ferrari. Peter Collins drove the second race for Vanwall , the team that won the first constructors' title in 1958. Fred Wacker and Jorge Daponte drove the last Grand Prix of their Formula 1 careers.

training

Mercedes once again used the car with the streamlined full fairing for Fangio and Kling in training, as Monza, as a high-speed track, accommodated this body shape. Fangio again drove the fastest training time. The small gap of a few tenths of a second to the competition from Ferrari and Maserati showed that the top Italian teams could keep up with the Mercedes in training. On his comeback, Ascari immediately reached the first row on the grid with the second-fastest time, while Moss finished third in training, who was able to confirm the strong form of the previous races. However, at that time he was considered a material-destroying driver, which was proven by his many technical failures in earlier races, in which he was eliminated while lying in a promising position. The second Mercedes from Kling, the Ferrari of world championship runner-up José Froilán González and a Maserati from Villoresi started the race on row two . Herrmann's Mercedes without the full fairing reached eighth place. Collins put his Vanwall on a disappointing 16th place on the grid and the financially weak Gordini team reached twelfth place with Jean Behra .

run

Fangio before Ascari

The Autodromo Nazionale Monza always offered exciting races in the 1950s, as the long straights and the famous banked curves offered many opportunities for overtaking maneuvers. The races were mostly determined by slipstream duels, frequent changes in leadership and a large number of overtaking maneuvers. Already at the start, Kling, having started from fourth place, took the lead ahead of Fangio, Ascari and Gonzalez. The Mercedes led the field for the next few laps, but were unable to build a lead over the competition. On lap 4, a driving mistake by Kling led Fangio to take the lead of the race. Kling fell back to 5th place, but was able to continue the race. To the delight of the Italian fans, Ascari overtook Fangio's Mercedes, showing that the Mercedes is not unbeatable on high-speed circuits. Behind the two, Moss fought with Gonzalez for 3rd place, which Moss claimed after Gonzalez gave up the race with a gearbox failure. But for Gonzales the race was not completely lost, because in 1954 you could still drive a team-mate's car. Umberto Maglioli was forced by the team to make his car available, so Gonzalez resumed the race and started a chase. A few laps later, Roberto Mieres retired with a damaged suspension, and Karl Kling damaged his car so badly in an accident that he also retired.

At the front, Moss extended his lead over the pursuers to 6 seconds. From lap 15, Fangio continuously caught up, Moss overtook Gonzalez and improved to third. On lap 20, Fangio was already in the slipstream of Ascari and took the lead for one lap three laps later. The two drivers then dueled for the lead for a long time.

Villoresi was fourth, overtaking his team-mate Moss, then Fangio. A duel with Ascari did not take place because he failed on lap 49. Thereupon Moss put his opponents under pressure, first overtook Fangio and then he took the lead from Ascari. Ascari fought back against Moss and the two fought an exciting battle for the top, which Ascari won. On lap 48, Ascari was leading ahead of Moss and Fangio when the leader broke an engine valve and retired from the resulting engine failure. Moss only took the lead for a brief moment, he had to make a pit stop to have oil refilled. He then suffered engine damage again and retired, but was still ranked 9 laps behind. Fangio benefited from the many failures of his opponents, took the lead and won the race by one lap. Hawthorn rose to second place in the classification, Gonzalez finished third in Maglioli's car. The other points were won by Herrmann in a Mercedes and Maurice Trintignant in a Ferrari. In his last race, Wacker narrowly missed the points; so the Gordini team remained unsuccessful. Collins achieved a respectable success in the Vanwall, from 16th on the grid he improved to seventh, but was five laps behind the winner Fangio at the finish.

That was the penultimate race of the season. Fangio had already secured the world title, Gonzalez temporarily confirmed the runner-up in this race. Only the fight for third place in the drivers' championship was still open for the season finale in Spain; Trintignant and Hawthorn were almost tied on points. The race proved that the competition from Mercedes had caught up, but was still inferior in terms of top speed and reliability.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Giovanni de Riu	02	Giovanni de Riu	Maserati A6GCM / Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L4	P
Ecurie Rosier	06th	Robert Manzon	Ferrari 625F1	Ferrari 2.5 L4	P
Jorge Daponte	08th	Jorge Daponte	Maserati A6GCM / Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
Vandervell Products Ltd	10	Peter Collins	Vanwall Special	Vanwall 2.4 L4	P
Daimler-Benz AG	12	Hans Herrmann	Mercedes-Benz W 196	Mercedes-Benz 2.5 L8	C.
	14th	Karl Kling
	16	Juan Manuel Fangio
Officine Alfieri Maserati	18th	Sergio Mantovani	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
	20th	Luigi Musso
	22nd	Luigi Villoresi
	24	Roberto Mieres
	26th	Louis Rosier
	28	Stirling Moss
Scuderia Ferrari	30th	Maurice Trintignant	Ferrari 625F1 / Ferrari 555 Super Qualo	Ferrari 2.5 L4	P
	32	José Froilán González	Ferrari 553 Squalo
	34	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari 625F1
	38	Umberto Maglioli	Ferrari 625F1
	40	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari 625F1 / Ferrari 555 Super Qualo
Equipe Gordini	42	Fred Wacker	Gordini Type 16	Gordini 2.5 L6	E.
	44	Jean Behra
	46	Clemar Bucci

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Juan Manuel Fangio	Mercedes	1: 59.0	190.59 km / h	01
02	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	1: 59.2	190.27 km / h	02
03	Stirling Moss	Maserati	1: 59.3	190.11 km / h	03
04th	Karl Kling	Mercedes	1: 59.6	189.63 km / h	04th
05	José Froilán González	Ferrari	2: 00.0	189.0 km / h	05
06th	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati	2: 00.2	188.69 km / h	06th
07th	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	2: 00.2	188.69 km / h	07th
08th	Hans Herrmann	Mercedes	2: 01.4	186.82 km / h	08th
09	Sergio Mantovani	Maserati	2: 01.6	186.51 km / h	09
10	Roberto Mieres	Maserati	2: 01.7	186.36 km / h	10
11	Maurice Trintignant	Ferrari	2: 02.3	185.45 km / h	11
12	Jean Behra	Gordini	2: 02.4	185.29 km / h	12
13	Umberto Maglioli	Ferrari	2: 03.5	183.64 km / h	13
14th	Luigi Musso	Maserati	2: 03.5	183.64 km / h	14th
15th	Robert Manzon	Ferrari	2: 04.7	181.88 km / h	15th
16	Peter Collins	Vanwall	2: 05.2	181.15 km / h	16
17th	Clemar Bucci	Gordini	2: 05.5	180.72 km / h	17th
18th	Fred Wacker	Gordini	2: 08.0	177.19 km / h	18th
19th	Jorge Daponte	Maserati	2: 09.5	175.14 km / h	19th
20th	Louis Rosier	Maserati	2: 11.0	173.13 km / h	20th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Juan Manuel Fangio	Mercedes	80		2: 47: 47.9	01
02	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	79		+ 1 lap	07th
03	Umberto Maglioli José Froilán González	Ferrari	78		+ 2 rounds	13
04th	Hans Herrmann	Mercedes	77		+ 3 rounds	08th
05	Maurice Trintignant	Ferrari	75		+ 5 rounds	11
06th	Fred Wacker	Gordini	75		+ 5 rounds	18th
07th	Peter Collins	Vanwall	75		+ 5 rounds	16
08th	Louis Rosier	Maserati	74		+ 6 rounds	20th
09	Sergio Mantovani	Maserati	74		+ 6 rounds	09
10	Stirling Moss	Maserati	71		+ 9 rounds	03
11	Jorge Daponte	Maserati	70		+ 10 rounds	19th
-	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	48		DNF	02		Engine failure
-	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati	42		DNF	06th		coupling
-	Karl Kling	Mercedes	36		DNF	04th		accident
-	Roberto Mieres	Maserati	34		DNF	10		suspension
-	Luigi Musso	Maserati	32		DNF	14th		Power transmission
-	José Froilán González	Ferrari	16		DNF	05		transmission
-	Robert Manzon	Ferrari	16		DNF	15th		Engine failure
-	Clemar Bucci	Gordini	13		DNF	17th		Power transmission
-	Jean Behra	Gordini	02		DNF	12		Engine failure

World Cup stand after the race

In 1954, points were awarded according to the following scheme:

1st place	place 2	place 3	4th place	5th place	Fastest lap
8th	6th	4th	3	2	1

• Only the five best results from nine races counted. Deleted results are shown in brackets.
• The numbers marked with * include the point for the fastest lap.
• Fields marked in the same color indicate shared vehicles.

Item	driver	constructor										Points
1.	Juan Manuel Fangio	Maserati / Mercedes	8th		9 *	8th	(3.14 *)	8th	9 *	(8th)		42 (53.14)
2.	José Froilán González	Ferrari	5 *		(1.5)		8.14 *	3	6th	3 *		25.14 (26.64)
3.	Maurice Trintignant	Ferrari	3		6th		2	4th		2		17th
4th	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari			1.5		6.14 *	3		6th		16.64
5.	Karl Kling	Mercedes				6th		4 *				10
6th	Bill Vukovich	Kurti's power		8th								8th
	Hans Herrmann	Mercedes				1*			4th	3		8th
8th.	Giuseppe Farina	Ferrari	6th									6th
	Jimmy Bryan	Kuzma		6th								6th
10.	Stirling Moss	Maserati			4th		0.14 *					4.14
	Onofre Marimon	Maserati					4.14 *					4.14
12.	Jack McGrath	Kurtis power		4th								4th
	Robert Manzon	Ferrari				4th						4th
	Sergio Mantovani	Maserati						2	2			4th
15th	Prince Bira	Maserati				3						3
	Roberto Mieres	Maserati							3			3
17th	Elie Bayol	Gordini	2									2
	Mike Nazaruk	Kurtis power		2								2
	André Pilette	Gordini			2							2
	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati				2						2
	Umberto Maglioli	Ferrari								2		2
22nd	Troy Ruttman	Kurti's power		1.5								1.5
	Duane Carter	Kurti's power		1.5								1.5
24.	Sam Hanks	Kurti's power		1*								1
25th	Alberto Ascari	Maserati					0.14 *					0.14
	Jean Behra	Maserati					0.14 *					0.14

Remarks

1. ↑ The information about the time of the failure of Ascari varies depending on the source. In the yearbook Internationaler Motorsport published jointly by ADAC and AvD in 1954 , it says on page 252: "There comes like a bolt of lightning from the blue - you just registered the 47th lap - the message over the track loudspeaker that Ascari has failed." A more recent source says: "On lap 49 the Ferrari dropped a valve into its engine and that was that, Alberto was out."

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "GP Stories - The Races of 1954" (www.motorsport-magazin.com on January 14, 2013)

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• "25th Gran Premio d'Italia" at motorsportmagazine.com
• Photos at f1-facts.com